Saturday May 31, 2008Softball Wins First WCWS Game While Setting NCAA Wins Record

Florida’s
first Women’s College World Series win was a record setter, as the Gators
became the first softball team in NCAA history to record 68 wins in a season.
The Gators 68th win was a 2-0, nine-inning victory over Virginia Tech in an
elimination game at the WCWS in Oklahoma City, Okla.

The game
came down to the ninth inning. Florida had five hits in the game, but had
suffered 17 strikeouts at the hands of National Player of the Year Angela
Tincher. Two more strikeouts began the Gator half of the ninth before junior Ali
Gardiner (Wacccabuc, N.Y.) knocked her first hit of the game up the middle.
Sophomore Francesca Enea (Woodland Hills, Calif.) knocked a base hit to
short center to continue Florida’s two-out rally. Freshman Kristen Adkins
(McKinney, Texas) came in to run for Gardiner at second. Freshman Tiffany
DeFelice (Coral Springs, Fla.) was hit by a Tincher pitch on a change up in
the 17th pitch of her at bat to load the bases. That brought up Florida’s lone senior Mary Ratliff (Mt. Sterling, Ky.). As she had many times before
in the season, Ratliff came up with a late inning, clutch hit. This time it was
a double, ripped through the left side to score Adkins and Enea for the win.

Junior Kim
Waleszonia (Fontana, Calif.) led off the game with a base hit through the
right side on a full count. She stole second on the next pitch to record the 59th
stolen base of her career and set the Florida record for career stolen bases.
She beat the previous record of 58 set by Lora Pinkerton from 1997-00 and tied
by Jackie Marchetta from 2006-08. Freshman Aja Paculba (Wildomar, Calif.) reached on a bunt single and advanced to second as the Virginia Tech third
baseman slipped on the infield. With runners at first and third, the next three
Gators went down on strikes to end the inning.

Junior
hurler Stacey Nelson (Los Alamitos, Calif.) and the Gator defense sat
down the first seven Hokie batters in order before giving up the first hit of
the game to Whitney Davis. Davis and Caroline Stolle were taken out on a Florida double play to end the inning.

The next
hit of the game came in the top of the sixth as Paculba reached on her second
bunt single of the game. The inning would end as Paculba was thrown out
attempting to steal second for the third out of the inning.

Virginia
Tech added another base hit as Caroline Stolle dropped a hit into right center
with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. But a ground out to Nelson ended the
inning.

The Florida bats began to wake up in the top of the seventh. With one out, Enea reached on an
infield base hit. Junior Le-Net Franklin (Belton, Texas) came in to
pinch run for her. Franklin slid past the base on the steal attempt for the
second out of the inning. DeFelice got the first hit out of the infield for the
Gators, as she dropped a base hit into left field. Junior Danyell Hines
(Bryan, Texas) came in to pinch run for her and stole second to put herself in
scoring position. She would be held there as the final Gator batter of the
inning went down on strikes.

There were
some tense moments in the bottom of the seventh. Lead off batter Erin Ota was
safe at third on a ball that went just over the reach of Waleszonia in center. Nelson
offered two intentional walks to load the bases. The sharp Gator defense turned
a double play as sophomore Corrie Brooks (Christmas, Fla.) fielded a
ground ball from Kelsey Hoffman. She flung the ball to junior catcher Kristina
Hilberth (Dunedin, Fla.) at home who then hurled the ball to first baseman
Gardiner for the second out. Jessica Everhart grounded out to Paculba at second
to end the inning. Florida allowed only one more runner on base in the next two
innings, securing the win.

Nelson
pitched all nine innings for the Gators, throwing just over 100 pitches, giving
up only two hits and striking out seven Hokie batters. Nelson’s record improves
to 46-4 on the season. Tincher finished the game with 19 strikeouts, just one
short of tying the WCWS for strikeouts in a game, which was 20 by Debbie Doom.

The extra
inning game was the third consecutive for the Gators and their fourth in NCAA
Tournament play this season.

Florida now advances to play UCLA at 7
p.m. ET. UCLA defeated Arizona 1-0 in its first game on Thursday, but fell last
night to Arizona State, 4-0, to cross over the Florida’s half of the bracket. The
game will air live on ESPN and ESPNHD. Beth Mowins, John Kruk and Jessica
Mendoza will call the game from the broadcast booth, with Holly Rowe doing the
field reporting. Florida radio broadcasters Steve Russell and Adam Schick will
call the game on WRUF AM850 and www. GatorZone.com.